Kazuko, the Wind Spirit
by Tsundere-Kun
Summary: AU. Find out what would happen if the Kharlan war never came to be. Slight spoilers in later chapters.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Welcome to a world not like our own...A world where many never age...A world where magic exists as the source of all life as it is known...A world in which humans, elves, angels, dwarves, and fairies live in peace...A world where **NOTHING **is as it seems...A world where **NO ONE **is how they appear...A world in which **NO WHERE i**s discrimination promoted... Nowhere, except in one small, insignificant town...Where this story begins…


	2. The Price of Being Different

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of its characters, they belong to Namco. I do, however, own the plot and all of that of this fic.

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A little boy about the age of eight was walking to elementary school by himself after leaving his house, a small stack of books clutched tightly in his arms. The boy had short, unkempt, auburn hair and chocolate brown eyes filled with anticipation of a new school year.

Although he looked excited on the outside, the young child was scared of what might happen to him if others were to find out that he was not a pure-blood human. And he had good reason to be so, because when he was not even ten feet away from his elementary school yard, he saw a group of what seemed to be pure-blood elves ganging up on a small boy with uneven blond hair. The older boys were sneering at the child, mocking him all because he couldn't resist them all at one time.

"Come on, put up a fight you stupid little brat!" one of the pure elves shouted, kicking the boy in his stomach, causing him to fall back down after just having to gotten to his feet.

"Yeah, human-fairy! Get up and fight!"

"Stop it!" The auburn-haired child ordered, dropping his books as he did so, rushing over to aid the blond boy. When he got there, he immediately pushed one of the older elven boys out of his way as he tried to reach the child a year younger than he was. The boy stood with his short arms out-stretched, facing the gang of older boys. "Leave him alone! What did he ever do to any of you guys?"

The group of elves laughed. "You think you can stand up to all of us, little half-dwarf? You've gotta be kidding…" They all then started against the brave child, but were all then out-matched just because of the child's blood. Since he was half dwarven, he had the strength of a dwarf; who, out of all the different races, had the best physical attributes.

After the elves retreated, the auburn-haired boy turned and ran as fast as he could over to the other boy. "Are you alright?" he wondered, kneeling down next to the blond.

The young boy just stared at him in disbelief. "Why are you helping me? I'm a tri—"

"Who cares what kind of blood you've got? All that matters is what you're like, am I right?" He questioned, shrugging his shoulders. As he stood up, he reached down a hand to help the other boy up.

"Thanks for helping me, I guess."

"You're welcome! My name's Lloyd."

"Huh? Your name's Lloyd? We-well, I didn't ask for your na—?"

"Like I said, I don't care what kind of blood someone's got," Lloyd interrupted, smiling at the boy he had helped out. "What's yours?"

"Mine? It-it's…Mithos."

"Well, I'm glad to meet you, Mithos," Lloyd told him happily. "Do you wanna be my friend?"

Mithos gave Lloyd a confused look that said; 'What do you mean by…"friend"?' "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

It was Lloyd's turn to look confused. "You mean, you've never have a friend before?" Mithos shook his head. "No? Well, how about I be your first friend ever?" Lloyd suggested, still smiling at the blond boy. "I promise I won't let anyone hurt you like that again…Why were they doing that anyway?"

"It's because they don't like people like me…that's what my big sister Martel told me the reason was. Th-they don't like tri-elves."

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That's right...Lloyd & Mithos know each other at the age of eight. I know, I know...

I have but one thing for you to do...review? Please?


	3. Enter Suna!

First of all, I would like to thank my first reviewer: Wyrz.

Discliamer: I don't own any of the characters from ToS. I do, however, own the plot, Zelus, & Suna.

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About a week later, the same group of pure-blood elves were at it again. Mithos had been waiting for Lloyd near the school gate so the two of them could walk home together, when the boys came up from behind Mithos and knocked him to the ground. 

They all started laughing as Mithos tried to get back up. "What's the matter, human-fairy?" The leader demanded. "How sad, you're little dwarf friend isn't here to protect you. Pathetic little brat…"

"You know what's **more** pathetic, Zelus (1)?" a girl's sarcastic voice questioned from above, addressing the elf who had spoken. "You need all your little elven friends to back you up just so you can beat up some little kid." A young girl with raven black hair jumped down from the tree beside the group of boys, the smirk on her face being almost as noticeable as the small dagger at her side.

Zelus frowned, his tone disdainful, "What do **you** want, Suna (2)?"

She shrugged. "Nothing really, it's just I can't stand having my silence interrupted by your annoying voice." Suna brushed back a few stray strands of hair out of her face as she spoke.

"You're as arrogant as always," Zelus grumbled.

"And you're a dumb blond," Suna retorted evenly, smirking directly at him, "…as always."

At this, Zelus' head turned to look back at his friends as he told them to retreat for today. That he "has had enough of this human's smart mouth." They all then slowly walked away at first before running as fast as they could away from Suna and Mithos.

As soon as the elves were gone, Suna glanced down at Mithos who was laying motionless on the ground. "You okay, kid?"

Looking up, Mithos nodded. Noticing someone was coming towards them, Suna spun around and was about to jump back up into her tree when the new comer's voice called out to her. "Hey, you!" He shouted. "Get away from Mithos!" Lloyd came up to the two others, glaring as hard as he could at the girl. "Stay away from my friend," he ordered angrily.

"Look, I didn't do anything to him, okay? That was Zelus and his minions," Suna remarked defensively, holding hands up in front of her. She then pointed at Mithos, "Ask him if you don't believe me." Suna folded her arms across her chest as her face tilted downward. "Wouldn't be the first time…" she muttered to herself.

"Is she telling the truth, Mithos?"

"Uh, huh," the blond boy responded, nodding.

Lloyd looked up at Suna, his face apologetic. "I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions like that. It's just that those guys have done that before and…I don't want any of my friends to get hurt, so…can you forgive me?"

Suna's face turned pensive, her golden eyes seeming to be preoccupied with thoughts, thinking up a response to Lloyd question. After a short time, she nodded in agreement, saying, "Okay, I will…This time."

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(1) Zel (like in "Zelda")-Us

(2) Su (like in "soon")-Na


	4. How's That?

Thanks to Shushuna and Wyrz for the reviews.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own any of the characters from ToS. But I do own Suna, Zelus, and everthing else not related to the game in any way, shape, or form.

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The next morning during break, Suna was leaning up against the tree sat on a low branch. Suddenly, a blast of water knocked her backwards out of the tree. She landed on the ground, feeling a sharp pain in her back since she had landed right on top of a root. As she got unsteadily to her feet, laughter could be heard by a group of about eight or nine children.

"How was that for being a 'dumb blond', Suna?" Zelus inquired, still chuckling at his surprise attack.

"Coward…" she muttered.

"What did you say?" Zelus demanded, hitting her with another blast of water. "Say that again, human. I mean it."

"I said you're a coward, Zelus!" Suna shouted, struggling to get to her feet. Once she had stabled herself, Suna unsheathed the dagger at her side and pointed it straight at Zelus. "I will not take this from you anymore, understand that?! Not anymore!"

"Man, calm down, would ya?" The blond took a step back in surprise. "It's not like I'm trying to kill you or anything, human girl."

"Stop it!" She yelled, fed up with Zelus' attitude, her voice as well as hands shaking. "My name is Suna, got it?! Suna!"

"Oh, shut up already," Zelus told her, sounding annoyed, as he blasted her with another shot of water. "You're giving me a head ache."

Just at that moment the bell rang, signaling them all to go inside for the rest of their lessons. The group of kids, led by Zelus, left Suna lying on the ground out in the school yard all alone. Since she had lost so much energy from shouting at him, Suna laid there unconscious as all the others who were outside at that time went inside.

When she awoke many hours later, the first thing Suna noticed was that she was in a bed somewhere, covered by a blanket; the scent of delicious food wafting up to her from the floor below. She sat up, trying to obey the food telling her to come down and eat it, but was pushed back down onto the bed by someone else's hands.

"Stay there, okay?" His voice asked kindly. "I'll go get you something to eat now that you're up." The sound of foot steps on stairs hit Suna's ears shortly after the familiar boy's voice had spoken. After just a few minutes, the same sound got louder and louder as the boy ran up the stairs with a tray of food in his clutches. "Here, eat this." Suna looked up to come face to face with none other than Lloyd as he held the food out to her. "Go on, eat it, Suna."

She gave him a questioning look. "How…do you know my name?"

"Mithos told me," Lloyd answered simply, shrugging.

Suna glanced down at the food: plain pancakes, a small bowl of syrup, a glass of orange juice, a knife and fork. "Why are you giving me all of this stuff? I'm not like you. I'm not a half-dwarf, so…why are you helping me? And what's your reason for bringing me here?"

Lloyd sat down in a nearby chair posted next to the bed Suna was in. "I told you before, didn't I? I don't want any of my friends to get hurt…**ever**."

"But I'm not your—"

"Yes, you are. You helped Mithos…Any friend of his is a friend of mine, okay?"

"I only did that so I wouldn't have to listen to Zelus, understand?" Suna asked. "There was no other reason I had to do it…I don't even know who you—"

"My name's Lloyd,"

"Lloyd, huh? Well…I'm still not your—"

"**Yes**, you are, Suna. Can you understand this one thing I'm trying to tell you?"

"What."

Lloyd looked straight at her, focused on what he was about to say, his tone as serious sounding as he could make it at such a young age. "I don't care about what race anyone is. Heck, you could be a mix of just about every race and I would still want to be friends with you."

"…Really?" Suna inquired, her voice doubtful.

"Really." Lloyd nodded, his eyes closing during the time his head was moving and then reopened as it stopped.

"If you truly mean that, I-I suppose…I could agree with it," Suna consented.


	5. Grounded, Forgetful, & Demons, oh my!

Eight years later…

It was a clear, cloudless, and windy day. A young human girl was walking home from school, her long, raven-black hair billowing behind her. "Hey, Suna, wait up!" A boy's voice called out to her. She stopped walking, waiting for him to catch up. The boy had shoulder-length, messy auburn hair and dark brown, calculating eyes. "Why…didn't…you…wait…for me…back…at school?" He wondered, breathing hard from the long run.

"I thought you said before that you'd rather walk by yourself than with someone like me," she replied aloofly.

"I'm sorry, okay?" He told her exasperatedly. "Can't you take a joke, Suna?"

"I apologize, but no." Suna quickened the pace at which she was walking, causing the boy beside her to have to walk faster if he wanted to keep up with her. "Now if you wouldn't mind, leave me alone, Lloyd."

"Can I just talk to you for a second? I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about what happened last night when that Yggdrasill guy ran around the whole city causing everyone around to be in danger."

"I don't know anything about that, Lloyd. Don't you remember? My father told me I had to stay in my room anytime I was home this entire week. I got grounded for staying up too late."

Lloyd's expression turned to one of a person who just remembered something he had been told days ago, forgotten, and now remembered it again. "Oh yeah…" he chuckled awkwardly, a hand behind his head rubbing the back of his neck. "I knew that. I just…forgot."

Suna smiled, slightly laughing at her friend's absent-minded moment. "It never ceases to amaze me what kind of things you forget."

"Huh? Wha-what'd you mean?" His head tilted to the side in confusion. "I don't forget stuff…that often."

That caused her to laugh even more. "What do you mean, not 'that often'?!" she questioned. "You forget a lot more things than you think you do, Lloyd."

The two of them continued walking home until they reached Lloyd's house right on a corner the street. Then, Lloyd went home as Suna continued on to her house. As she walked, her pace slowed down a lot. Suna reached into her book bag and took out her wallet, a newspaper clipping inside of it with a picture on it. The picture was of a man with long, blond hair and clothes that looked like they were from the 50s; white bellbottomed pants and a white shirt with a v-neck collar, gold trim around his shirt collar and sleeves. He was flying in the air by using multi-colored wings that appeared to come directly out of his back.

"'A Demon Attacks'…" Suna murmured, reading the headline off the paper. She scoffed, "Demon, ha! Those newspaper reporters don't even know an angel when they see one? How pathetic."


	6. Attack of the Yggy!

The next morning, there had been another attack the night before, everyone in the whole school was talking about the Yggdrasill attack. Suna, saying how she didn't know anything about it, didn't take part in the discussions.

"So you don't know anything about it either, Mithos?"

The short, teen boy nodded at his auburn-haired friend. "That's right, Lloyd. My sister and I were inside the entire day this whole week. She was helping me with my studies."

"Aren't you failing Public Speaking or something?" Suna wondered.

"Yeah, Martel says that I just need to focus on what I'm going to say instead of who I'm talking to," the young blond explained calmly.

"What about how you're a—?"

"Shut up, Lloyd," Suna ordered, elbowing him in his stomach. "How would you like it if someone reminded you that you're a half-dwarf?"

"Well sorry, Suna, but I was just trying to make a point that Mithos is a—"

"I told you to shut up, did I not?" she inquired angrily. "Now drop the subject, okay?"

"Okay, okay. I'll stop," Lloyd replied, waving both of his hands in front of him.

Mithos laughed, apparently not bothered by what Lloyd had said. "That's alright, Lloyd. I know people don't like me just because of that rumor that I'm an alien. I know it's all because of my blood." He turned to Suna, "So you don't need to worry about it either, okay?" he asked kindly.

"Hmph, who said I was worried?" Suna questioned defiantly, slightly glaring at Mithos.

Lloyd took a few steps forward so he was in between his two friends. "Okay, that's enough, you guys. You're friends, remember?"

"Yes, we know," they answered in unison.

"Just the tri-elf doesn't appreciate what I was trying to do for him," Suna muttered resentfully.

"I said that's enough, Suna."

In response, she just turned and walked away.

Later that day, Lloyd was by himself as he rode his bike to the store. "Bread, milk, cheese, and tomatoes. Bread, milk, cheese, and tomatoes," he repeated over and over again as not to forget anything he had been told to buy. "Bread, milk, cheese, and those foul-tasting tomatoes…yuck." The boy frowned disgustedly at the thought of his least favorite food. "They're not even sure if it's a fruit or a vegetable, so why eat something if you don't know what it is? Only makes sense…"

He got off his bike, still repeating his list, locked it up and then went inside the store. About five or so minutes later, he had all of the food he needed as was almost out the door when something exploded about ten feet away from him.

"Take that you stupid pure-bloods!" A voice shouted above the crowd of people outside.

"That sounds like—aw man, why does Yggdrasill have to be here now?" Lloyd complained softly.

"So I can do whatever I want, but just not when you're around, is that it?" Yggdrasill inquired from behind Lloyd. "What a biased, human view on a situation."

The boy turned around on his heel to face Yggdrasill. "What would that make you if you're not a human? An elf?"

The blond, winged man raised a hand, a small spark forming into a sphere in the palm of his open hand. "Do not insult me, human," he hissed. He was about to release the sphere as an attack against Lloyd when the younger boy got pushed out of the way, the electrical strike hitting the person who had aided Lloyd.

"What the—? Suna? Is that yo—oh, sorry."

The girl did indeed have black hair, but she did not look like Suna at all. Her red eyes glared at the man towering over her.

"Well, well, if it isn't my little friend Kazuko," Yggdrasill remarked.

"Leave these people alone, Yggy," Kazuko ordered, getting to her feet as she spoke.

"And if I should choose to refuse that?" He countered. "What will you do to me, human?"

"Human? Hm…you can call me that if you wish." She shrugged carelessly, her voice pensive. "Well, enough of that. You," she pointed at Yggdrasill, "get out of here and I won't have to hurt you."

Yggdrasill laughed tauntingly at the teenage girl. "You? Hurt me? That's a laugh." He once again shot a spark of electrical energy, hitting her in the shoulder. "What, am I too powerful for you little human girl?"

"Stop it!"

Both fighters paused and looked over at the person who had shouted. "Who are you?" The blond questioned.

"Do as she says and I'll tell you…" he smirked, "Yggy," he responded; a hand on his hip, the other pointing over at Kazuko. His auburn hair blew in front of and away from his brown eyes as he told "Yggy" what to do.

"Silence, boy," Yggdrasill commanded, using magic to send the boy back into a wall. "I will not have some human tell me what to do, understand?"

"I…understand…Demon Pyre!" Kazuko shouted, sending a single stream of fire down upon Yggdrasill.

The auburn-haired boy got to his feet as quickly as he could. Then, after running over toward Yggdrasill, he spread his arms out as a barrier to protect Kazuko, standing right in front of her. "Hurry up and run away, girl."

"Move out of my way," Kazuko ordered.

"I said run, Kazu—"

"No. I am not going to run away and let this demonic angel get away with whatever he pleases," Kazuko retorted as she knelt on the ground.

"But, Kazuko—"

"No." She stood up, practically beside him. "Move aside and let me fight, okay? I don't want any humans to be hurt by our quarrel."

"What do you mean by—?"

"Don't give away anything that might blow everything, Kazuko," Yggdrasill warned.

"Shut you're mouth, angel," Kazuko ordered sternly, turning her head to the boy while still watching Yggdrasill out of the corner of her eye. "What is your name?"

"It's Lloyd. Lloyd Aurion."

"Well, Lloyd, Yggy here is part angel, part human, but also…part elven."

"What? So…he's a—?"

"In short, he's a tri-elf," Kazuko concluded sourly.

Lloyd gave her a look as to say; 'What about you? Didn't you say you didn't want any **humans** to get hurt? So what does that make you?' "Well…?" He inquired.

"I, myself, am a fel-elf. In other words, a quarter-elf," she explained. "I am a quarter elven, a quarter angelic, a quarter human, and a quarter dwarven."

"So…your blood is a combination of basically all of the races? All except the fairies?"

"Fairies are a subdivision of angels and elves," droned a bored man's voice. "They are half of each, so are simply called 'fairies' because people got bored of calling them 'half-angels.' It's the simple-minded ways of humans and elves."

The two teens stared in disbelief at the tri-elven man who had explained the past of the fairy race to them. "Why are you telling us something so calmly when we're supposed to be fighting you?"

"It's—No clue," Yggdrasill answered, raising a hand to the sky, beginning to chant, "Powers of the sacred spirit, cast thy judgment upon these tainted souls…I summon thee from the domain of Shadow to unleash thy strength…" A light slowly formed in the palm of his hand.

While that occurred, a large circle of light appeared around the pair of teens, a barricade of the same substance was gradually increasing in height. Realizing what it was he was doing, Kazuko told Lloyd to jump out of the circle if he still could.

"I don't think I'll be able to make it," he protested.

"Fine then. Don't go in the center or near the outside, okay?" She warned, standing in the exact center of the circle.

"Aganaktisi Edikasi(1)!" The tri-elf shouted, causing a bolt of lightning to come crashing down in the center of the circle.

"What the—?" Lloyd spun around just in time to see the fel-elf get hit by the strike. He, himself only got a slight shock since he was no where near either the middle or the rim. "You stupid idiot!" He exclaimed, running towards her, stopping just a few steps away from Kazuko.

"I wouldn't touch her for a while if I were you, human boy," Yggdrasill advised him, his voice sounding as if he were trying to hold back his laughter. "Dwarves are such fools, aren't they? She would rather die herself than let some human she just met to get killed instead. Pathetic, don't you think?"

"Don't mock dwarves!" Lloyd commanded, stomping his foot on the ground. "She was brave to do something like that! Something I know **you** would never do!"

"Oh, really? Well, I shall see you next time, Lloyd Aurion." Yggdrasill turned to fly away, but before he did, his head turned back to face Lloyd one last time. "And it may be sooner than you think…see you at school," he muttered, only allowing Lloyd to hear the first part of what he had said.

Once Yggdrasill had left, Lloyd hurriedly ran the rest of the way toward Kazuko. "Kazuko, can you stand?" He asked, seeing as she was still alive.

"I'm fine. Dwarves can handle electricity better than humans. What I want to know is, are you okay?"

Lloyd smirked uneasily. "Yeah, I-I knew that." His face fell. "Ya see, I'm not human either…I have a human mother, but a dwarven father." Kazuko inquired as to why he was so embarrassed to admit what kind of blood he had to someone like her, a small smile on her lips. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Didn't you know that elves can sense another person's genetic signature, Lloyd?"

"But…aren't you only quarter elven?"

Kazuko got slowly to her feet, shaken a little, nodding in agreement. "Yes, I am. That doesn't mean I don't have those abilities." She then began to walk away. "Later, Lloyd…" she bid farewell, waving backwards as the boy. "I could still tell."

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(1) A-Gan-Nack-Tea-See Eh-D-Ka-See Indignation Judgment 


	7. What are you talking about, Mithos?

Yggy said "see you at school" wonder what that means...?

**DISCLAIMER: **If I owned ToS, you owe me a Wii.

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The day afterwards, Lloyd, Mithos, and Suna were all outside for lunch. They were sitting beneath a tree near the perimeter of the school yard. Suna had the most energy of all three of them, which was strange since Lloyd and Mithos usually had a lot of energy.

"What's with you guys?" She wondered, her head going from one side to the other and back to look at the two boys. "Did something happen yesterday that I don't know about?"

Lloyd nodded faintly. "Yeah…Yggdrasill attacked when I was on an errand. I don't know why Mithos is tired though…"

"Went for a walk," Mithos stated just before yawning widely, laying his back against the tree trunk. "Came back sometime later…as tired then as I am now."

Suna stared at her blond friend in slight amusement. "So you didn't go on a rampage, Mithos? Little tri-elf…"

The auburn-haired teen sighed. "Do I have to say the same thing I did yesterday? Don't argue, got it guys?"

"Fine…" Mithos and Suna answered tonelessly.

"Good." Lloyd stood up and went across the yard to go talk to a classmate that he took Dwarven Arts with. He was going to make sure there was no project due or anything since neither Suna nor Mithos took that class.

"So…how's the heroine business going, Suna?" Mithos inquired slyly.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mithos," she responded evenly, slowly closing her eyes.

"Oh, I think you do," Mithos countered, sitting up. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you actually are a human with the way you look and all. Although…black hair, golden eyes…the scent of a **fel-elf**. That in itself says something to me about you, Suna."

"Really now? I didn't know racist tri-elves could sense someone else's genetic signature," Suna replied skeptically.

"Hey, guys, it's almost time to come in. Lunch is almost over," Lloyd notified them as he jogged over to the pair.

"Oh, okay then," Suna consented as she stood up and followed Lloyd inside, Mithos soon doing the same.

That night, Mithos came staggering inside his house. As he did, a woman about 20 years old stood waiting near the kitchen table for him. She had pale green hair about the length of the boy's body. Mithos' blond hair was a mess, his clothes tattered and torn.

"Where have you been, Mithos?" The woman asked kindly, her voice gentle.

"Oh, uh…hi, Martel. I-I can explain."

"Really?" she questioned, her tone kind but even; her face filled with a soft smile.

"Yeah, you see…Lloyd and I had gone to visit a friend of his, but we lost track of time and missed curfew."

"Is that so? Well, I'll just have to pay a visit to Lloyd's house to confirm that story."

"No!" The young boy shouted anxiously. "I-I mean, why? Don't you trust me, Martel?" Mithos' voice sounded as if he felt Martel had hit a vulnerable spot in his confidence, causing him to look sadly up at her.

"I did…before all of these attacks by Mr. Yggdrasill. Now, it's too dangerous for a boy your age to be outside by yourself."

"But, Martel, I—"

"I'm just worried about your safety, Mithos. Neither Father nor Mother are alive anymore, and you're the only family I have left…I-I just don't want to lose you, too, Mithos."

Mithos started towards his bedroom, slowly walking backwards as he faced his older sister. "I'm sorry for troubling you, Martel…" He then turned around and went the rest of the way down the hall to his room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

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	8. Angel  What?

Thanks to my reviewers!!

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the ToS charaters, but I do own the rest.**

* * *

Some nights later, the same thing occurred. Martel was really worried for her brother, so she kept him home instead of allowing him to go to school. Her excuse to the administration for Mithos not coming to school was that he had fallen ill and shouldn't leave his house because of it. She even went as far as telling Lloyd that Mithos was too sick for him to see Mithos at all. When he would ask what kind of sickness it was Mithos had, Martel would reply, "It's a sickness most common in tri-elves as well as people with a combination of bloods that include elven and angelic, called Agkelos Toxikosis. Or, in English, Angel Toxicosis."

"Are you sure you won't catch it?" Lloyd wondered curiously.

"Yes, I'm sure." Martel nodded. "A person can only get Agkelos Toxikosis once in his or her life, and I've already had it."

"But if it only affects you if you have elven and angelic blood, there's nothing I have to worry about," Lloyd pointed out, attempting to get past Martel so he could visit Mithos.

"You still shouldn't go in his room, there's a chance that if you two share at least one of the same race's blood, you could catch the Agkelos Toxikosis from Mithos even though you have neither of the required bloods," she warned. "And trust me; it is the most troublesome of illnesses you could ever imagine. You don't want to have to wake up in the morning to find out you've got it. That feeling is just purely filled with fear."

"Yeah, but, if Mithos is sick, I would really like to visit him…Can I, Martel?"

The tri-elven woman sighed in defeat. "Sure, Lloyd, follow me." She began to lead the auburn-haired boy to Mithos' room. Once she came to the door, she stopped and faced Lloyd. "You mustn't ask too much of Mithos, okay? The toxicosis has many different symptoms, such as losing your voice, not being able to taste any kind of food, losing the feeling in your entire body…Things like that," she listed nonchalantly, Lloyd's face becoming paler and paler by the second. Noticing the half-dwarf was staring at her with a scared expression on his face, Martel hurriedly told him to go in to see Mithos as she side-stepped out of the way.

Once Lloyd entered, Mithos looked up from where he sat on his bed. "Are…you okay, Mithos?" Mithos nodded, not saying a word in response. Lloyd took that to mean Mithos had lost his voice. "But…Martel said you had Angelus Tennisis or something. Wouldn't that mean you're not okay?"

Mithos slapped his forehead with a hand. He then got out of bed and over to Lloyd, raised the same hand and was about to do the same thing to Lloyd as he had to himself when Martel opened the door behind Lloyd.

"Mithos, you have a visitor. Should I send him in?"

"Sure," Lloyd consented, seeing Mithos nod his head in agreement. "Who is it?" The auburn-haired boy wondered as Martel left retrieve the visitor. He turned back to Mithos. "Does Suna know you're sick too?"

"You **dare** mention that witch's name in my presence?" A teenage boy's voice demanded cockily. "When I heard you were sick, human-fairy, I didn't think people were actually worried about you."

The pair of boys with mixed blood looked over at, in Lloyd's case turned around, at the one boy who has always been in their lives just for the sake of causing trouble for them: Zelus. "What do you want?" Lloyd demanded since he figured Mithos couldn't talk himself.

"Am I not allowed to visit someone who's sick?" Zelus questioned, his voice still having the sound like he thought he was superior to the two others.

"If you're just here to annoy us then leave, Zelus," the two boys turned to look over at the bed where Mithos stood, glaring at the blond elven boy. "Just shut up and leave us alone, got that?!"

"Mithos, you…you can talk?" Lloyd inquired, amazed. "I thought you couldn't since your sister said you had Angel Texicosi—"

"You mean 'Angel Toxicosis'?" Zelus remarked, giving Lloyd a look as to say; 'Are you stupid or something?' He scoffed at Lloyd's foolishness, "That sickness is just a legend made up by the angels. It's not real."

"Take that back," Mithos growled, glowering at Zelus. "Just because all you stupid pure-bloods can't get that sickness doesn't mean it doesn't exist!" He shouted, running towards Zelus as he charged up an attack. "Take this! Elec Surge!" Mithos sent a bolt of electrical energy shooting at Zelus through his open palm as it contacted the elf's chest. Zelus got thrown back into the door, almost tearing it off its hinges.

"Wow…" Lloyd breathed. "I-I never knew you could do that, Mithos."

"And you!" The small, blond, tri-elf rounded on Lloyd. "Why can't you just leave me alone for once? I'm not that little kid you had to save anymore, understand?"

"Ye-yeah…I do," the half-dwarf responded shakily, taken aback by his friend's explosion. He slowly stepped back away from Mithos, stepping over Zelus as he ran out the door to find Martel. "Martel!" He called, getting as far away from the young tri-elf as he could a fast as he could.

Startled, Martel looked up from the novel she had been reading. "Wha-what is it, Lloyd?"

"It's…Mithos…he's…acting really…weird," Lloyd explained, breathing heavily, his hands on his knees. "Can you…try to…talk him…into…stopping?"

"Well, I-I could try to," Martel answered, standing just before steadily striding over to Mithos' bedroom door. She knocked. "Mithos? Is everything okay in there? …Mithos?"

Just then, the door was opened to show Zelus in the door way. "If you're looking for the human-fairy, you just missed him. He flew out that window," Zelus told her, pointing at a hole in the wall where a window pane used to be.

Martel rushed over to the hole. After examining it, she called Lloyd inside and explained what Mithos had done to him. Hearing what exactly the problem was, besides the hole in the wall, Lloyd decided to search for Mithos. As he ran out of the room, Martel called out to him, "Be careful, okay! Mr. Yggdrasill might be out there somewhere!" She just stood in on place, worry evident on her face. "…Mithos…" she murmured, staring out the window.

"Mithos!" Lloyd called, searching the entire area for his tri-elven friend. "Mithos! Where are you, Mithos?!" He stopped running, sat down on the ground, and tried to think of the first place Mithos would go if he ever got really, really angry. "Where could he be…?" Lloyd muttered, his head in his hands. "…Wait a second…that can't be it—yes it could." He hastily got to his feet and then started running as fast as he could towards his high school. "Mithos! Mithos! Mith—ah!" Before Lloyd could finish, he was blasted by an electrical shock. "What the—? Yggdrasill!"

"Hello again, Lloyd Aurion. Have you had a nice, wonderfully, quiet false peace since the last time we met?"

"Why—how did you know I went to school here?" Lloyd wondered, getting to his feet.

"Hmm…where is she?" Yggdrasill murmured, glancing around him. "Kazuko! Come out, come out wherever you are."

"Huh? Why are you looking for Kazuko?" Lloyd asked in confusion. "There's nothing that would cause her to come here." Right after he said this, Yggdrasill began laughing. "What? What's so funny?"

Suddenly, Yggdrasill disappeared from the sky. "Oh really? I think there's **something**around here that would make Kazuko come out of hiding," he whispered into the auburn-haired boy's ear, a slight spark floating from his hand and shocking Lloyd's shoulder.

"Li-like what?"

"Not **what**, exactly…it's more of a **who** rather than a what," the blond man taunted as a small spell circle surrounded Lloyd. He backed away just far enough before shouting, "Metallo-desmevo, Fortia Styl (1)!"

"What are you—? Hey!" Lloyd as a metal cage appeared, surrounding him on all sides. He ran forward and grabbed the bars in front of him just to let go from the glowing metal. "Ah! Th-that's hot! What did you do?!"

"Well of course it's hot, idiot!" Yggdrasill reprimanded. "It's newly created metal. What do you think it would feel like?"

Just then, a large gush of water shot up from beneath Lloyd, soaking him to the bone. "Ow!—what was that?" He inquired, having hit his head on the top of the cage when the water pushed him up off the ground, as he landed on his back on the hard school yard ground.

"That would be water-based magic on the second level known as Potizo Kouno, or Water Wave, Lloyd."

"Ahh…so you've come, Kazuko."

"Kazuko?" Lloyd asked. "Aw man," he muttered, realizing just what had happened. "Go away, Kazuko! It's a trap!"

"You're too late with that warning, Lloyd Aurion," Yggdrasill taunted, smirking. "Now come out and face me like the cowardly fel-elf you are, Kazuko."

"I am not a coward, little tri-elf," Kazuko countered as she stepped out into the open school yard.

"'Little tri-elf'?" Lloyd asked in confusion. "What do you mean by that? Isn't he a big tri-elf if he's—"

"Silence, both of you," Yggdrasill ordered. He turned to gaze down at Kazuko, his eyes filled with resentment. "I know I have asked this question many times, but I'll ask again. Why do you always get in my way?"

"Because, Yggy, you are not, and have not, using your unique traits to—"

"'Unique traits'?" Yggdrasill yelled indignantly. "'Unique traits'?! Don't make me laugh, little girl. There is nothing 'unique' about me, got that?"

Kazuko sighed, "Fine…have it your way, Yggy. I won't say anything more about it, okay? Just let the kid go."

"No."

"And why not?" She questioned, attempting to keep patient. "I'm here, just like you wanted, am I right?" Kazuko put a hand on her hip, waiting for Yggdrasill to answer both of her questions.

Yggdrasill pondered the female fel-elf's questions, not answering either too quickly. He looked directly at her as he floated slowly down to the ground, facing towards Kazuko and away from Lloyd. "You are correct about that one, but since you are here…" He started, the same kind of small, spell circle slowly and quietly forming around Kazuko. "Why not you stay for a while and explain just what is you're planning on gaining from all of this? Metallo-desmevo, Ilektrikos Styl (2)!" His shout caused a metal cage, similar to the one Lloyd was held in, to appear where Kazuko stood. Although, when it was fully created, no one was trapped inside it.

"You won't find me in there, Yggy," Kazuko's voice commented from somewhere other than right in front of Yggdrasill.

"Where are you, you stupid little fel-elf!" Yggdrasill demanded to know. At that moment, a single crystal-like silver feather floated down to the ground right in front of Yggdrasill. "What the heck is—? Ah, I see…" His head looked up toward the sky just in time to see a teenage girl with long, black hair and silvery wings disappear into thin air. Glaring at the feather, he squashed it underneath his heel; grinding it into the grass. "Grr…make a fool out of me, will she?" Muttered Yggdrasill as he unfurled his own wings and took to the sky in search for Kazuko. "Come out and face me, brat!"

"Why don't you make me? Agios Xifos (3)!" Kazuko retorted, sending a huge, single, glowing sword down upon Yggdrasill; causing him to fall to the ground right on top of Lloyd's cage. The impact, although not fully breaking the metal, made a sizeable hole in the top of it. Quickly returning to the sky, Yggdrasill didn't notice Lloyd had enough room to escape. And escape he did, but just when he stepped all the way out, he tripped over part of the cage and fell flat on his face.

"Ow…" Lloyd sat up, rubbing the side of his face that got hurt the most.

"Lloyd? Is that you?" A young boy's voice asked from far off. Then, a pair of people came running towards Lloyd. He couldn't tell exactly, but Lloyd figured the two people were not the same height since one arrived near him faster than the other.

"It is Lloyd!" Said a girl's voice from above Lloyd's line of vision. "Mithos, come over here, quick! Lloyd's hurt."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," Mithos consented. "Impatient human…" he muttered, running as fast as he could to Lloyd's side. Kneeling down beside the half-dwarf, Mithos asked Lloyd if he was hurt bad enough that he couldn't move or not.

"Mithos!" The girl was startled by her friend's bluntness. "We need to figure out a way to help him, not make him feel worse," she reprimanded, sounding a little bit angry but at the same time, her voice was strained and tired-sounding.

"But, Suna, it's not like we can just magic him over to his house," Mithos objected.

Lloyd looked up at his two friends. "Suna? Mithos? What are you two doing here? And where—what happened to Kazuko and Yggdrasill?"

Mithos and Suna turned to give each other an awkward look as to say: 'You think we should tell him where they are?' Mithos was about to speak when a man's shout covered Mithos' words, cutting him short. "Come back here and fight me, fel-elf!"

All three of the teens looked up into the sky to see Yggdrasill floating there, searching for Kazuko. "What the—? **That's** Yggdrasill?" Suna asked, amazed to see what the older tri-elf looked like in person. "Wow…"

Mithos smirked. "Don't get too excited, Suna," he warned. "Yggdrasill's a tri-elf, remember?"

"Oh…right."

* * *

(1) Meh-Tal-Low – Des-Me-Vo For-Tea-Uh Style Metal-Bind, Fire Style 

(2) E-Leck-Trick-Os Style Metal-Bind, Electric Style

(3) Ah-G-Os I-Fos Holy Sword

**What do you think? Please tell me & review.**


	9. How dumb is Lloyd?

And now...the chapter you've wanted to so this whole time.

**DICLAIMER: I don't own ToS or any of its characters, but I do own Suna, Zelus, Kazuko & any other OC I can't remember right now.**

Have fun!

* * *

Suddenly, a ray of white light came shining down upon the three of them, lifting Suna into the air. "Wha-what's going on here?" Lloyd wanted to know as his female friend was being pulled away by the light, he and Mithos staying on the ground; unaffected by the light. "Suna! Where are you going?"

"I wanted to tell you earlier, Lloyd," Suna responded sullenly, her face barely recognizable in the light. She then disappeared into the light, soon emerging as what seemed to be the same person. The only difference the two boys could see was that she had a pair of crystal-like wings coming out of her back. Suna slowly came down to earth, her eyes closed. When her feet touched the ground, her eyes opened to reveal that they were now blood red in color. Suna's face was as empty as a corpse, her eyes filled with regret.

"Tell me what? That you've got wings? Why would that change anything?"

Suna looked away from his questioning face. "I'm a fel-elf, Lloyd Aurion."

"So?" Lloyd shrugged. "What's that got to do with who you are, Suna?"

Suna bit her bottom lip in frustration before turning to glare directly at Lloyd. "You just don't understand, do you?! I've lied to you both that I was a pure human all these years, and you don't care?!" She demanded, shouting at him in a rage. "You say you don't care, but everyone here has at least a little bit of hate for those of us with mixed blood. Even if you don't want to admit it to yourself, that includes you too, Lloyd."

"But, Suna, I don't—"

"I know, Lloyd, you always say race doesn't matter to you as long as that certain person is a good person. But you know what? I'm **not** a good person, okay? I lied to both of you, to everyone, that I didn't know anything about Yggdrasill, but…" Suna took in a deep breath and tried to calmly continue. "But I do…Not only that, but I kept it a secret from you guys that I was who you met before, Lloyd."

"You mean…you're Kazuko?" Suna nodded solemnly. "Wow, I never would have guessed it was you, Suna," Lloyd admitted, chucking. "How did you get your eyes to change colors like that?"

Suna stared at him like he had gone insane at the age of sixteen. But then, she abruptly began laughing a little causing the roles to switch and the boys were giving her a look like they were thinking: 'Has she gone crazy or something?' Noticing their looks, Suna asked, "What? I can't laugh?" She inquired sarcastically. "Is it, like being born with more than one blood supposedly is, a crime? If so, then I guess I'm going to jail."

"Trelos tetaro-elfa…" Mithos muttered.

"What did you say?!" She demanded, glaring at the young tri-elf.

"He said 'crazy quarter-elf.'" A familiar man's voice commented as he came down from the sky.

"I am not a—"

"I never said you were, Kazuko," Yggdrasill replied evenly. He turned to Mithos who in turn gave him a don't-you-dare-say-anything kind of look. "Shall we go home, Mithos? Megalyteros adelfi Martel is waiting for us."

Mithos sighed, turning to his friends. "I—I gotta go, okay guys?"

Lloyd shrugged. "Sure, Mithos, go ahead." All three of the others stared at the half-dwarf in shock, unable to believe that he would let his friend leave with the guy that tried to kill him just a few minutes ago. Seeing this, he asked, "What?"

Suna smiled, "It never ceases to amaze me to see that you're as oblivious as ever, Lloyd."

That night, Mithos laid in his bed, wide awake. He couldn't go to sleep, even if he tried to. After a while, he got up and went over to his sister's room to ask her about something.

"Martel…" He whispered, knocking on the door. "Can I come in, Martel?"

"Yes, you may, Mithos." The boy opened the door, softly closing it behind him. "What is it?" Martel wondered, sitting up to look directly at her little brother.

"Uh…Lloyd said that you told him I had Angel Toxicosis," Mithos explained slowly. "What I want to know is…why?"

Martel looked away uneasily. "It's…it was the first thing that came to mind when I needed something to tell Lloyd."

"But, Martel, I—do you have—um…do you think—I-I mean, were you thinking of Mother when you told him that?"

"Yes, I…I'm sorry, Mithos. I said you had such a dangerous illness when you really don't. I'm so very sorry." She turned back to look Mithos in the eye. "Why do you ask about the toxicosis?"

"We-well…because I-I think I have Angel Toxicosis," Mithos confessed. Startled, she inquired as to why he thought he had caught such a serious illness. "It's because, no matter what I try, I can't sleep. Isn't that one of the signs that a person has it?"

"Yes…it is…and I sincerely am sorry that I did this to you."

"What?" the young blond asked, his face showing that he wasn't sure on what it was his sister meant. "I'm confused…what are you talking about?"

"It's because, well I've never told you this but, I have the ability to…predict the future, so to speak," Martel explained, her voice a little sad, but at the same time her face was still able to keep its cheerful nature.

"Wait, are you that it's your fault?" Martel nodded. "What do you mean by 'predict the future'?"

"Exactly what I said," she responded. "I am able to, unconsciously, see what will happen closely in the future of either a family member or a really close friend. And since you're the only family I have left…"

"Don't think that!" Mithos shouted. "I don't care if I have Angel Toxicosis or not, just don't think it's your fault, Martel!" He sighed. "I know you've already gone through this kind of sickness once before when Mother had it, but…it's different this time. They have a way to cure it, believe me…I-I just don't want to see you look the way you did when Mother caught Angel Toxicosis, okay, Martel?"

Throughout her little brother's speech, Martel simply stared in amazement at him. "Mithos, I-I-I'm sorry," she told him, bowing as well as she could since she was sitting on her bed.

That caused it to be Mithos' turn to be amazed. "Wh-What? Why are you bowing to me? I didn't do anything, good…not lately anyway," he protested, muttering the last part.

Although he had muttered it, Martel could still understand what it was he had said. "If you really feel that way, why don't you explain to your friends your reasons for doing what you did?"

"Mithos nodded slowly. "Okay…I-I think I'll do that, Martel," he consented, turning to leave his older sister's room. "I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Martel."

"Good night."


	10. What Did He Say?

So...what will happen next I wonder? Perhaps Martel knows? Then again, maybe not.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own ToS. If I do, then you owe me $10.**

* * *

The next day, Mithos didn't utter a single word all morning. Whenever he had that same class as Lloyd, the half-dwarf would try to get Mithos to answer his question of: "What's wrong, Mithos?" Although Lloyd tried as often as he could, the young blond wouldn't answer.

During lunch, Lloyd came to a conclusion. A conclusion that Suna doubted was the right one. "But, Suna, why wouldn't that be it? If Mithos isn't talking, maybe it's because the Angel Toxikinesis has taken his voice away."

"If he did have Angel Toxicosis, he wouldn't be in school," Suna countered, getting tired of Lloyd trying to prove that his point was valid.

Mithos, however, was no where to be seen. In fact, he was purposely keeping his distance from the two of them; especially Suna. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Martel," he mumbled, disappointed that he had too much pride that he couldn't even apologize to Lloyd…and Suna. "I know I've always tried to do what you say, but…I just can't tell them."

"Can't tell who what?" A seventeen-year-old boy's voice asked, his tone mocking. "You're so-called 'friends'?"

Mithos whipped around to face the other boy. "Leave me alone, Zelus," he retorted sourly. "I'm not in the mood to deal with your antics."

"Oh, but I'm in the mood to talk to you. So you had better be grateful that I'm not here to hurt your sorry little self," Zelus responded, his voice turning from the critical-sounding tone he had been using to one that was kinder than usual. "I just want to help you, that's all."

The young tri-elf gave him a suspicious look. "And what's in it for you if you do?"

Zelus shrugged. "Nothin'."

"…Are you sure you wouldn't be—?"

The pure elf nodded. "I'm sure," he answered as he sat down next to Mithos. "Look, buddy, those of us with elven blood gotta stick together, right?" Zelus asked, slinging an arm around the younger boy's shoulders.

Which Mithos immediately shrugged off out of disgust, commanding him to keep his "filthy, pure-blooded hands" off of him.

"What's the matter, bud? Don't you wanna be friends with me?" Zelus wondered, sounding hurt that Mithos didn't like him. "Besides, can't you see what those two are tryin' to do to you?"

"…What do you mean?"

Zelus looked at the younger boy in shock. "What do I mean? I mean they're messin' with your mind, bud. Haven't you realized that?" Mithos shook his head slowly, his shoulder-length blond hair waving back and forth as he did so. "Wow…they've really done a good job on your mind, seriously. Can you not tell what's real anymore? Those two have been messin' with your brain so dang much that you'd just go along with anything they said, haven't they? I feel so bad now…I never took the time to see what was happenin' to you all these years and well, I really regret that I couldn't prevent this from happening."

"Really?" Mithos asked as he turned look up at Zelus, his face full of surprise.

"Yep, yep. That I do. And…"

"And what?"

"And all this time me and my friends have been makin' everything worse for you…we didn't really take the time to think of what it was like to live a day in your shoes. Not at all…Can you forgive me, Mithos?"

The young tri-elf simply stared, disbelievingly at Zelus. "Wha-wha-what did you just call me?"

"Mithos. Isn't that your name?" Mithos nodded. "See? I was just callin' ya by your name. Is there somethin' wrong with that?" Mithos shook his head in response, still surprised that Zelus had called him "Mithos." Zelus sighed. "Good. I was startin' to think you didn't like me, Mithos. Although…I can't really blame you if you don't. I mean, I've been a total jerk to you the whole time we've known each other and all, so I—"

"Stop it."

"Huh? What do ya mean?"

"Stop saying how wrong you were to be mean to me," Mithos explained, his voice strained slightly. "I-I just can't believe that you'd be able to say it so easily like that. I mean, I can't even say it to my friends and you can say it to someone who you've beat up your entire life…I'm pathetic, aren't I?"

"Not at all!" Zelus responded, once again putting an arm over Mithos' shoulders. "You're just so confused because of all that junk those other two have been stuffin' you head with. Don't blame yourself for what they did, okay, Mithos?" The younger blond boy nodded. "All we need to do is set them straight, right?"

"Yeah!" Mithos agreed, smiling up at Zelus.

"So this is how we're gonna do it…" Zelus explained the plan of action to Mithos.

After hearing it, he nodded in agreement to Zelus' idea. "That sounds good to me, but…do you think they'll listen to me?"

"Of course they'll listen to you, bud! They still think they can control you by whatever they tell you to do, am I right? Then there's no worries!" Zelus reassured him. "If it were me tellin' them it, then we'd have to worry bout it since they don't exactly appreciate what I try to do."

"But I do," Mithos told him.

"Yep, yep! That you do."

After lunch ended, all the students went inside for the rest of their classes. When school was over for the day, Mithos stood outside the gate of their high school as he waited for Lloyd and Suna. "I told them to come over here right after school, didn't I?" He murmured, trying not to let his friends' absence get to him. "I must stay on task."

"What do you mean, Mithos?"

The young tri-elf spun around to face the speaker, surprised to see it was, "L-Lloyd! Wha-what are you—I mean, where's Suna?"

"I'm right here. What is it you wanted to talk to us about?"

"We-well…I…" The blond's head fell downward.

"Hurry up, okay? I don't have all the time in the world like you do," Suna commented impatiently, placing a hand on her hip.

"I knew it," Mithos muttered as his head slowly rose, his eyes brimming with tears. "I knew it! Big Brother!" He shouted, stepping back from Lloyd and Suna.

* * *

Cliffie!!!!! (don't hate me, okay?) 


	11. Zelus

Previously...

"_I knew it," Mithos muttered as his head slowly rose, his eyes brimming with tears. "I knew it! Big Brother!" He shouted, stepping back from Lloyd and Suna.

* * *

_

"What the—?" Lloyd wondered, startled at what his friend had just said "What do you mean big—? Whoa!" A large burst of water had blasted the two up into the air. And then, once they landed back on the ground, a ring of fire sprang up all around them.

"What is all of this about, Mithos?!" Suna demanded, glaring at him as best she through the flames. Just before she unfurled her wings, Suna remembered the fact that no one except Lloyd and Mithos knew who she really was. "Dang it," she muttered angrily.

"I'll take it from here, Mithos."

The young tri-elf nodded, "Right." He then turned his back on his two friends inside the circle of fire and ran as fast as he could back to his house, mumbling, "I'm sorry, guys…"

* * *

For the rest of the week, Mithos would get up and leave for school extremely early so he could wait at the entrance for Lloyd, or even Suna, to arrive so he could walk in with whoever it was that came, up until the point where he would have to run inside or be counted as late. But neither of them came to school that week, leaving Mithos to hang out with his new-found ally Zelus.

It was a cloudy, fall, Thursday afternoon and Mithos was sitting outside underneath the same tree he, Lloyd, and Suna usually sat under. He sighed, completely bored out of his mind.

"What's wrong, Mithos?"

The tri-elf looked up to see Zelus standing before him, an expression of concern on the elder boy's face. "Hey, Zelus?"

"Yeah, bud? What is it?"

"What…did you and the others do to Lloyd and Suna that they aren't coming to school?"

Startled the boy would ask such a question, Zelus paused for a second and then replied casually, "Oh, you know," he shrugged "the usual." Seeing as that answer didn't exactly calm Mithos' worries, Zelus continued. "Why do you care anyways? All they've ever done was control you like a mindless slave. You know how people like them can be, looking down upon you just 'cause you're blood is different from theirs' and all that junk."

Mithos' head tilted downward in sadness. "Yeah, but—"

"They had your head so filled up with lies, that it was really hard to be able to get you to see sense, Mithos. Can't you trust me?"

The younger boy sighed. "…Okay," he nodded, looking up once more. "I trust you, Zelus."

He wrapped an arm around Mithos' shoulders. "That's my bud," he said contentedly.

* * *

That same day, right after school ended for the day, Mithos was walking to his locker when he suddenly got hit in the back by some kind of flying spike made purely of earth. Since no one else was in the hallway, he was by himself to face whoever it was that attacked him. "So you think you can just betray your friends like that and get away with it, huh?" A seventeen-year-old girl's voice questioned him. "Well think again, little brat."

"What the—?" Mithos gasped, turning behind him to see that it was one of the girls that usually hung around Zelus and his friends. "Aren't you Kris—?"

"Silence, kid. We don't need to hear your complaints," A different voice, this time a boy's, ordered. "Isn't that right, Kristi?"

"You are absolutely right, Pai," Kristi agreed. A circle then slowly appeared around Mithos as Pai chanted, Kristi keeping the tri-elven boy in one place.

Just as she had attacked Mithos, Pai finished his incantation by shouting, "Achtina(1)!" Sending four streams of light down in a square upon where Mithos laid, the fifth and final light hitting him in the center of the square. "That ought to get it through your stupid, little, mixed-blood head not to stay around our leader," he seethed.

"Yeah, stay away from Zelus you little—"

"Leave him alone!" The familiar voice of a certain blond-haired, elven boy rang throughout the hallway. Then, Zelus came running down towards the three of them.

The pair of attackers stared at him in disbelief. "You-you mean us, Zelus?" Kristi asked, unable to take in the fact that Zelus was standing up for a tri-elf.

"Who do ya think I mean, him?" The blond questioned, pointing down at Mithos. He raised a hand near Kristi's face, seeming to be about to slap her. Assuming the worst, she shut her eyes tightly and ducked her head over to the side as well as lowered it a bit. Although, in reality, Zelus was merely doing that so he could begin casting a spell of his own. "Return to the dimension of those unworthy of Gnome's domain. Sobaros(2)!" He shouted the final word, causing a set of spikes to come out of the ground beneath the young, fallen tri-elf.

"Ah!" Mithos grunted as the earthen spires hit him, each at a separate time. Then, a final spike thrust up form right under Mithos, shooting him up into the air and hitting the ceiling with his back. Landing back on the floor, he attempted to get to his feet. "Zelus, I-I thought you were my friend…But you, but you were lying to me…weren't you?"

"Now see here, Mithos. I really thought you were gonna join our side, but then you had to go and be worried about those other two," Zelus countered, bringing a hand up to keep the other elves silent. "That, my little ex-friend, is where you went wrong."

Gaping at the blond, elven boy in disbelief, Mithos tried as hard as he could to keep calm. Despite his futile attempts, a soft light began to appear around him. Confused, Zelus, Kristi, and Pai backed away from the youngest boy. Then, the light completely engulfed Mithos' body. As it slowly disappeared, the three teenagers were face with a face they had only see on the front page of the newspaper; the face of Yggdrasill.

"Wha-what the—?" Zelus stuttered. "How the heck are you-how are you him?!"

"Run away!" Kristi shouted, spinning on her heel and leaving the hallway as fast as she could; Pai hurriedly following.

"Cowards," Yggdrasill muttered disdainfully as he watched the two retreat. Seeing Zelus trying to do the same, he questioned, "And just where do you think you're going?"

Freezing where he was, Zelus turned to look Yggdrasill in the eyes. "I'm gonna tell the truth and say, uh, gettin' the heck outta here."

"Oh really?" The man inquired, just before beginning to chant, "Powers of the sacred spirits, cast thy judgment upon these tainted souls…I summon thee from the domain of Shadow to unleash thy strength…" A large, dark, light blue-ish spell circle then encircled Zelus. "Aganaktisi Edikasi!" Just after he yelled the name of his attack, a bolt of lightning came thundering down upon the young elven boy. Seeing as he lay on the ground motionless, Yggdrasill commented, "Who did you say was 'unworthy of Gnome's domain', impudent brat?"

Just then, a whole crowd of both students and teachers combined came stampeding down the hallway toward Zelus and Yggdrasill. "That's him!" Pai shouted, pointing at Yggdrasill. "That guy is really Mithos!"

Yggdrasill's face turned stone cold. "I'm disappointed in all of you, especially those of you who actually know what my surname is."

* * *

Meanwhile, Martel was walking to Lloyd's house when she heard a voice shout: "Aganaktisi Edikasi!"

She turned in the direction of the voice. "Mithos…?" Shaking her head a few times, Martel continued on to the residence of the young half-dwarf and his mother. "It couldn't have been him…he's in school right now."

When she arrived, Lloyd's mother told her that she could visit Lloyd for just a few minutes because he had "that run-in with a rabid wolf" and needed to rest.

"Oh, I understand completely, Anna. Mithos was sick not even a week ago, so…I know what you mean," Martel sympathized. "Can you tell me where I would find Lloyd's room?"

"It's upstairs and to your left," Anna directed, pointing up the wooden staircase. "Good luck trying to get him to talk to you, though. He hasn't said a thing to me all morning."

The forest green-haired woman walked up to the second floor and, once reaching the door directly to her left, raised a hand and rapped on the door. "May I come in, Lloyd?"

"…"

"I'll take that as a 'yes', shall I?" She opened the door and looked around the room. "Where is he? Anna said that he was—"

"Hi, Martel!"

"Ah!" she screamed in surprise, a hand coming up and covering her heart. "Lloyd, you…you startled me."

The young brunette half-dwarf smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Heh, I wouldn't say 'startled' is the word for it."

"Lloyd!" Anna called from the first floor, causing Lloyd to spin around and face the doorway. "Stop scaring people like that!"

"Okay…" The boy responded sullenly just before turning back towards Martel. "I'm sorry, Martel. I—what did you want to talk to me about?"

She stared down at him in silence. "…It's…about Mithos."

"Oh…" Lloyd almost sighed in response as he carefully walked over to his bed and sat down. "What about him?"

"You know how I had told you he had Angel Toxicosis, right?" He nodded. "Well…when I had told you that, he didn't actually have it. But then, that night, he came and told me that he couldn't sleep at all, so…he does have it." As she spoke, Lloyd's expression changed from being confused to being shocked that Martel would lie and then back to being confused.

"What's that got to do with what he did a couple days ago?"

Taken aback, Martel wondered, "What do you mean 'what he did', Lloyd?"

"Uh…never mind," he said quickly, ducking beneath his covers. "I didn't say anything, okay?" Getting suspicious, Martel carefully pulled back his blanket, trying as hard as she could not to lose her hold on it since Lloyd was resisting her removing his covering. "I didn't say anything about Mithos befriending Zelus, now did I—oops." He started to speak, but then realized what he had just said as Martel took away his covers. The young teen's head fell to rest on his chest.

"What do you mean be 'befriend Zelus'? Do you mean that other blond elf that was here before?"

Lloyd nodded, deciding that telling Martel about it wasn't such a bad idea after all. "Don't tell him I asked you this, but…why did he have to help Zelus? I mean, he always angered Mithos, so why would he help Zelus in beating me and Suna u—?"

"It's 'Suna and I', Lloyd, remem—what?" Martel inquired. "Mithos was the on that hurt you like that?" She motioned towards the boy's scorched back of his neck as well as his arms and feet.

Lloyd shook his head, wincing a little from the movement. "No, he just signaled Zelus and his friends so they could do it. Mithos didn't attack either of us at all."

Martel sighed in relief. "That's good I suppose…what is it they did to the two of you?" She asked softly, being cautious of Lloyd's injuries, not knowing if they still hurt or not.

"Uh…we-well," the boy stuttered, unsure if he should tell on one of his best friends. "First, we got surrounded by a ring of fire. Then…I got knocked out cold," he started to explain, his face apologetic. I'm sorry I couldn't have been more of a help to you, Martel. I really am."

"That's okay. You tried your best, but you could only remember a little bit of what happened. No one's going to blame you, Lloyd," Martel comforted, walking over and sitting on the edge of his bed as she spoke. "So don't think like that, okay? I—heh, I guess we really are related…" she murmured softly while in thought.

Lloyd on the other hand, just simply stared at her in confusion. "…What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lloyd. It's just that—well, I repeated something Mithos had said to me just now, and…"

"Oh, I get it," Lloyd responded seeing as the older woman had gone quiet. "What you said reminded you of him, right?"

"Yes…but I don't know where he is right now."

"Shouldn't he be in school? It is Fri—"

"Lloyd! Martel!" Anna called, sounding urgent. "Please come down here, quickly." The two of them looked at each other before they both rushed out the door and down the steps. "Ah, you're here. Look at this." Anna pointed toward the television screen where a human man with long, blue hair sat behind a desk. On the wall behind and a little to the right of him, was another screen; a frozen picture of winged Yggdrasill flying over a sea of fire.

"How horrible…" Martel breathed, shocked at what she saw.

The man on the screen explained, "This is a shot taken not too far off from the local high school of the newest terror, Yggdrasill, is wrecking havoc on the teenagers who had just gotten out of school for today. More information is coming in rapidly as we speak. Presea, how are things over there?"

The screen then switched to show a woman about the age of 28 standing a mile or so away from Lloyd's recently destroyed high school. She had long, bright pink hair and eyes the color of the sky. Her expression was grave as she spoke. "I would like to say thank you for that, Regal, but I doubt it would suit what is occurring here. I am not even five minutes away from the point where the demon known as 'Yggdrasill' is terrorizing the students of Mana High. The scene you see behind me is a result of, what nearby residents have said, was a large explosion from an 'Indignation Judgment' attack from the blond menace. Back to you, Regal."

It went back to the blue-haired man named Regal. "As you can see from these pictures," he said as he motioned towards five pictures that rotated on the screen behind him. "The damage done will take a long time to repair. Not only that, but it—hm?" Regal paused, a young man with short, messy, silver hair came into view and handed the man a sheet of paper. "Thank you, Genis." He nodded in the direction the sliver-haired runner had left, reading what the paper said. Looking up, he stated, "This just in, it has been reported that mostly all of the faculty and students were able to get out of the range of Yggdrasill's attack before it went off. All except for five people. Their names are yet to be—Thank you again, Genis." Genis came back into the screen with another sheet of paper, handed it to Regal, waved at the screen, and then left. "Their names are as follows: three elves: Zelus Wilder, Kristi Page, and Pai Alvey, a half-elf named Raine Sage, and a—"

"What!?" A voice shouted from inside the television.

Regal looked off screen in the direction Genis had gone. "Is there something wrong, Genis?"

It could be heard that, off screen, the silver-haired Genis was running through multiple obstacles and then appeared on the television. He stood beside Regal in furry. "That's my sister you're talking so calmly about!"

The man simply stared at him for a moment before turning back towards the camera. "Anyway, the fifth unknown person is a tri-elf by the name of Mithos."

"Mithos?" Genis asked, confused.

"Yes, the last name of the tri-elf is unknown," Regal responded evenly. "And that has been our special report on Yggdrasill the Demon. We shall now continue with the regular news with Sheena—?" He was still talking just as Lloyd reached over to turn off the television.

"Well that was…interesting," commented Anna, looking over at the other two in the room. "Don't you think so, Mar—Lloyd?! Where are you—?"

"I'll be back before nightfall, Mom!" Lloyd shouted as he ran out the door.

"Okay…" She and Martel looked at each other, stunned that he could go that fast and his injuries didn't hurt very much.

* * *

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," the young half-dwarf muttered, running as fast as his charred legs could carry him. "Why did I have to pass out _inside_ the ring of fire?" He got to his school grounds just in time to see a teenage girl plummet from the sky and crash land ten feet away from him. She had long, raven black hair and silver, crystal-like wings. Finally realizing who it was, Lloyd dashed over to help her up. "Kazuko!" He knelt down beside her. "Kazuko, are you okay?"

Slowly rising to support herself with her elbows, Kazuko loudly muttered, "You can just call me by my name you know, Lloyd."

"Huh?" Lloyd wondered, thinking about what it was he had called her. "I did call you by your name. Isn't Kazuko your name?"

"…You could say that, yes," she responded. "Lloyd, I need to tell you something. Yggdrasill is—"

"Silence, little girl," the above-mentioned tri-elf commanded., firing a shock into the middle of her back. The attack struck her directly, causing her to fall flat back onto the ground.

"What about Yggdrasill, Kazuko?" Lloyd asked, trying to get her to continue talking to him. Seeing as the girl got knocked unconscious, Lloyd hurriedly picked Kazuko up and carried her as far away from Yggy as he could. He then turned back to face the adult tri-elf.

"What, are you planning on fighting me yourself, Lloyd Aurion?" Yggdrasill inquired. "Do you really think you, who can not use any kind of magic at all, have a chance against the same person who defeated her? The one they call the 'Wind Spirit'?"

The auburn-haired, teenage boy glared at Yggdrasill, his usually brown eyes looking as though fire was actually burning in them. "I'm not scared of you, Yggy," he stated defiantly.

"Really?" The man questioned, using only a single hand to make Lloyd fly all the way across the school grounds and land flat on his stomach. "It looks to me like you don't have any sort of desire to beat me, boy. Too bad for you she's already gone. If she wasn't, you'd actually have someone to protect."

Lloyd attempted to rise to at least his knees, but continuously lost his balance and fell back down. Eventually reaching a position in which he could look up at Yggdrasill from where he knelt on his hands and knees, Lloyd saw the limp form of Kazuko in the distance. Realizing the fact that Yggdrasill might just be right, his head dropped downward as his entire body began to shake vigorously, streams of light emerging from the boy. "No…" He started, his voice uneven. "You're wrong, Yggdrasill…Even if Kazuko is dead, I can still protect everyone else from you. Especially my best friend who might still be buried underneath all that rubble."

Yggdrasill's eyes softened slightly at Lloyd's mention of his "best friend." "And just who would that 'best friend' be?"

"He's the greatest, most kind friend a person could ever have," Lloyd explained. "And I get why Zelus picked to deceive him instead of Suna or me." His body suddenly emitted a ray of red light that then divided into two and connected him to, not only Kazuko, but Yggdrasill as well. "Tell me where Mithos is right now, Yggdrasill!" The teen ordered, his breathing slightly ragged from the hard landing, raising a clenched fist into the air just so he could slam it into the ground underneath him. "Tell me!"

"He's right here," Yggdrasill responded evenly.

"Wha—?" Lloyd began just as a really, really bright light shone, covering Yggdrasill's whole body. "What're you—Mi-Mithos? Why—how—wha-what are you doing here? I thought you—"

"I could ask you the same question, Lloyd," the young blond tri-elf countered. "I was starting to wonder how long it would take for this to happen…" he mused. "So, Lloyd, do you have any kind of guess as to why I told you I didn't know Yggdrasill?"

Hurt, the auburn-haired half-dwarf glared at his friend as the shorter boy unfurled a pair of rainbow-colored wings and took to the sky. "You—you lied to me, didn't you? All that time, you knew you'd never have a run-in with Yggdrasill because—because you're him!" Lloyd concluded. "Why, Mithos? Why do you keep attacking people? What did they ever do to—?"

"They did nothing. The people who were simply running errands, like you unexpectedly had been, did absolutely nothing to me personally. They did, however, hurt many of my people by their words and actions."

"Then why attack the school? Nobody here has ever—"

"So you're saying no one attacked me eight years ago? 'Nobody', Lloyd? What about Zelus? Or Suna?" Or…" his voice trailed off for a few moments before he continued, seeming to not believe what he was about to say. "Or you?"

"What?" Lloyd asked, practically speechless. "I didn't do—"

"That's right. You didn't do anything to help me, Lloyd Aurion," Mithos interrupted sullenly, his voice sounding as if he felt betrayed. "And now, you have the guts to say no one ever did anything to harm me?!" He shouted angrily, his hands clenching to form fists. "Despicable. Truly despicable…"

Just at that moment, a set of four, glowing swords came crashing down upon Mithos; a fifth one soon following in the other four. The strikes caused him to fall out of the sky and land almost directly at Lloyd's feet.

"Stay away from him, Mithos," a familiar female's voice ordered sternly, a dark shadow slowly walking over to the pair of boys.

"Ah! Kazuko, how are you—?" Lloyd started to inquire before she held up an open palm in front of his face.

"Quiet, Lloyd Aurion. This is a battle between me and Yggy here, so you can run away and go back home now."

Offended, neither of Lloyd's feet moved a single inch as he raised a hand to remove her's from his line of vision. "No," he told her, his voice beginning to sound like he was going to be acting rashly if something wasn't done quickly. "I'm not gonna run and hide while you risk your life, again, just for the sake of protecting other—"

"You."

"Wha-what?" The half-dwarf wondered, rapidly shaking his head from side to side.

"I said you, Lloyd Aurion," Mithos answered, struggling to get to his feet. "The reason you always see Kazuko when you are in any kind of danger is because she puts protecting you before anyone's, even her own, safety. Do you understand?"

Lloyd stared down at the young tri-elf in surprise. "You don't have any kind of proof of that, do you, Mithos?"

"He doesn't need any more proof than my saying that he's right, does he, Lloyd?" Kazuko asked, turning towards him.

"Wh-why do you actually want to protect me—?"

"Years prior to today, you help me out more than you will ever know, Lloyd. That debt I have now fully repaid." She turned on her heel and began to silently walk away. "Good bye, Lloyd Aurion." Pausing for only a moment, Kazuko took that time to spread out her silvery wings. Taking off from the ground, she was about to leave the two boys by themselves back on the earth's surface. "Until next time, Mithos Yggdrasill…"

* * *

(1) Ach-Tea-Na Ray 

(2) Sew-Bar-Os Grave


	12. It's Okay

Well, it's been roughly a month & 2 weeks, right? Oh, and happy Valentine's Day to you all (or Single Awarness Day as one of my friends called it).

* * *

The following Thursday, the only two that were outside the ruins of their high school were Lloyd and Mithos. It had taken them the entire weekend, plus Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, to settle their differences. They sat beneath the same tree Lloyd had placed Kazuko under during his and Mithos' fight. What they didn't realize though was the fact that, not only was it the only tree that didn't get burnt to a crisp for it was inside the range of Yggdrasill's attack, but it was the same tree that the three of them always sat under during lunch. 

"So…you're full name is Mithos Yggdrasill? The same name as the guy who destroyed this whole place," Lloyd asked, still slightly surprised. Mithos nodded. "And Martel's is Martel Yggdrasill?" The young blond nodded again. "Wow…and to think that I thought I hated Yggdrasill for what he was doing." The tri-elf looked up at his auburn-haired friend, a little scared to see what he would say next. Lloyd glanced down at him, grinning stupidly. "At least I didn't actually do what I wanted and kill him. If I did, that would mean I wouldn't be having this conversation right now, wouldn't it?"

"You mean…you wanted to…kill me?"

Lloyd immediately shook his head. "Of course not, Mithos. I could never want to harm any of my friends, you know that."

"Yeah…I know, but at the time, you didn't think of Yggdrasill as your friend now did you?" The half-dwarf paused for a second, then shook his head in response. "See? I knew you hadn't. That would mean you didn't give a care about what happened to hi—I mean, to me."

"I'm sorry, Mithos. I—I guess I just wasn't thinking. I—"

"No offense, Lloyd, but you don't usually think…at all."

Taken aback, Lloyd demanded, "What's that supposed to mean?!" He grabbed the short, blond boy by the shoulders and put him into a head lock, messing up his hair as best he could. "You would think you'd give me **some** credit after what I had to go through what with Zelus attacking Suna and me about a week and a half ago. Along with everything else that was going on."

Mithos laughed softly. "Yeah, I guess I will give you a little credit, Lloyd."

"You should," a female voice remarked from behind them.

They both turned to look at each other in surprise for a second before whipping around the tree just to find no one there. Slowly moving back to where they had been sitting, neither if them spoke for a while. Then, Mithos glanced over at his half-dwarven friend, his eyes filled with curiosity. "So…how have you been handling the fact that Suna's not here anymore? Do you miss her?"

"Huh? Wha-what? What do you mean, Mithos? Su-Suna's not really gone…is she?" Lloyd stuttered, caught off guard by such a question. "I mean, ye-yeah, I know she hasn't been in school, but…that d-doesn't mean she's actually gone for good."

"Are you sure?" Mithos asked, a smirk forming on his face. "She might be gone forever and you never got the chance to tell her. How sad…"

"Wha-what? What are you talking about? Tell her what? I don't know what you're talking about Mith—"

"Sure you don't. I believe you…not." The boy stood up, his back to Lloyd, as his small smirk turned into a full-out grin. He spun around to face him. "What about your cru—"

Lloyd hurriedly got to his own feet and covered Mithos' mouth with a hand, causing the younger boy's word to get muffled and hard to understand. "Shut it, Mithos," he ordered, a faint blush appearing on his face. "You're wrong, okay?" Mithos attempted to speak, but his voice was still an incoherent mumble of syllables. "What was that? I couldn't hear you." The blond glared at Lloyd the best he could. Suddenly, the older boy yanked his hand away from Mithos. "What the—? Why the heck did you bite me?!"

"Heh, sorry, but I had to get you to remove your hand somehow."

"You didn't have to bite me!"

"You wouldn't move it any other way unless I did that!" Mithos protested, trying to get Lloyd to see where he was coming from. "Anyway, it's like I said before: you have a cru—"

"And I told you to shut it," Lloyd told the younger boy, pulling out two pieces of cloth and tying one around Mithos' mouth and the other so his hands were tied behind his back. The blond's mumbled protests could be heard as he attempted to break free. His friend's laughter rang out through the empty school yard. "What's the matter, Mithos? I can't understand what you're saying," he attempted to say in between his laughter.

Mithos continued to try to speak. He suddenly paused, and if he could slap himself he would have. The fel-elf concentrated on the patch of grass directly beneath Lloyd; which, after a few minutes, transformed into a bed of quicksand. Beneath the cloth tied over his mouth, Mithos was trying very, very hard not to chuckle at his friend's predicament.

"What the—Mithos! What did you do?" The auburn teen demanded, his feet slowly sinking into the ground. "I—you're not going to let me stay like this, are you?" He inquired, the boy's eyes staring pleadingly into Mithos'. The younger boy tried to respond, but the only sound that came out was a mumbled, incoherent jumble of words. Lloyd, while trying to keep his balance, leaned over and untied the cloth around Mithos' mouth. "There. Can you repeat what you just said?"  
"Why?" Mithos asked: his voice sounding somewhat like it had been, only the pitch was higher than it had when he was in his older form. He watched as his half-dwarven friend continued to sink into the ground, the auburn teen proceeded to ask him to reverse what he had done. "You didn't come and help me before, why should I help you?"  
"Because I—"

"Because you know in your heart that he would have helped you if he could, Mithos," a woman's voice responded calmly, a soft glow of green light encircling Lloyd as she spoke. She walked at a steady pace towards the two boys, a small smile on her lips. "Mithos, you need to remember who it was that had aided you as a child…who stood up for you when you thought you weren't going to survive third grade."  
Mithos' face fell as his head dropped down onto his chest, turning to his auburn-haired friend. "I-I'm sorry, Lloyd. I—"

"Don't worry about it, okay? You were just mad. I can understand that." Lloyd grinned his silly, trademark grin. "I think I like it better when you talk to me about stuff, it makes me feel important. Besides, I don't think Suna would've listened to you this far."

The boys looked each other seriously in the eye for a few moments before the young blond burst out laughing happily. "I guess you're right." He smiled. "You say some pretty cool things every now and again. Thanks, Lloyd."

"Don't worry about it, remember?" he replied, still chuckling. Lloyd sighed contentedly, turning to face the woman. "Why are you here, Martel?"  
"Lloyd!" Mithos said in alarm. "Don't be so rude to Mar—"

Martel looked at her little brother, the small smile had grown to one that made her look satisfied with the pair of boys. "It's alright, Mithos. You mother sent me to come looking for you, Lloyd. She wanted to talk to you about something."  
"Oh, okay…did she mention what it was?"

Martel shook her head, "No, she didn't. Anna only asked me to find out where you were." Lloyd nodded, turning to go to his house. As he left, the two siblings continued the conversation on. "I'm proud of you, Mithos."  
"Why?"  
"Because you're becoming a very kind, generous, and noble friend," she explained, her voice slowly drifting off as Lloyd got farther and farther away.

"No, I'm not..." the rest of Mithos' response was unable to be heard by the teenager, his footsteps soon being the only thing he could hear besides his beating heart.


	13. What's Going On?

. . .wow...my last update was Valentine's Day? ' whoops.

* * *

As Lloyd opened the door to his house, Anna called over for him to come into their living room. Hearing the television on as he neared the room, Lloyd wondered why she had it on. "It's—just watch, alright?" she asked patiently. "It should come back on in a—ah, here it is."

On the screen, were Regal and a woman who could have been mistaken for the young Genis' sister. "We are happy to say that the one known formerly known as 'Yggdrasill' is no longer a danger to this town, and that all of the people involved are safe." He turned to the woman. "Raine, would you like to explain what happened?"

The silver-haired woman nodded to him. "I would, yes." Then she turned to face the camera, her expression serious. "As it is known, the man who called himself 'Yggdrasill' has, for some reason, left us in peace; having only destroyed one high school during the time he was here. Having been teaching at Mana High before it was destroyed, I had gotten to know the students there and didn't expect the one responsible for it all to be one of my students. Of course, I now realize that I should have noticed the similarities between him and one of the younger students at Mana High. In order to be kind to him, I will not say his name. I only ask that he make it up to the school in some way, for I'm sure such a young man would have a lot of school spirit. I—"

"Raine, can I say something?" Genis' voice asked politely from off-screen.

She turned to Regal, her eyes asking the question instead of voicing it. "Alright," he responded, nodding. "Go ahead, Genis."

Genis walked on screen and stood in front of the desk both Regal and his elder sister sat at and then faced the camera, looking somewhat similar to Raine in facial expression. "I don't believe any of it. I go to school with M—him, and he has always been nice to me, so I refuse to accept what other people are saying about him being Yggdrasill. So, if you're watching this, know that I'm on your side, okay? Don't let all these people decide who you are, and just be yourself. I'm sure you can't go wrong that way." He smiled, his silver hair reflecting the lighting of the inside building. "Don't give up." The boy then turned and walked off-screen, noticeable a slight bounce in his step.

They both stared off after him, neither one knowing what to say after that. The blue-haired man then turned to face the camera. "Yes, well then. It has been nice speaking to you, Miss Sage."

"I enjoyed being here as well, Regal. Thank you for asking me to come."

Anna then went over and turned off the television; turning to face her son afterwards. All Lloyd could do was stare silently at it. "Lloyd? Are you alright?"

She wondered softly. "I—ah, it seems we have a visitor. I'll be right back." Lloyd nodded as she walked out of the room to go answer their front door. "Ah, Mithos, Suna, welcome. Lloyd's in the—"

"I'm right here," the auburn-haired teen said as he took his final two steps over toward his friends. When Mithos saw Lloyd, he immediately smiled; Suna's face simply turned toward him, for she had been looking around as if she was taking in her surroundings for the first time. The boy was unable to believe his eyes. There were his two best friends; acting as if nothing had happened in the past few weeks that could have changed anything between the three of them.

* * *

"Lloyd!" Anna called up the stairs. "It's time for you to go to school!"

The auburn-haired boy's eyes opened slowly, murmuring, "school? Wasn't that burned down or something? How am I gonna—?"

"LLOYD!"

"I'm awake, Mom!" He blurted, sitting up hurriedly. "I'm coming!" Lloyd got out of bed, got dressed in his usual dark blue jeans and untucked, red button-up shirt, and then rushed downstairs. Once he got there, he saw something that made hi mind go blank. There, sitting at their kitchen table, was a dark-haired man dressed entirely in purple. His hair was semi-long, unruly, and almost black but was truly brown. Hearing Lloyd came downstairs; he turned around and stared straight at the boy through chocolate orbs.

"What are you looking at me like that for, Lloyd?" The man asked.

"How are you—?" he stopped, gasping, as he just realized that his voice didn't sound the same way it had the previous day. Lloyd looked down at his hands, seeing those of a young child. His gaze met the older man's. _What is __**he**__ doing here?_". . .Kratos?"

"Yes, Lloyd?" Kratos asked evenly, acting as if the boy hadn't paused when he saw him. "Is there something you'd like to say?"

"Are you visiting us today?" Lloyd wondered, trying hard to remember how he used to talk to Kratos.

Hearing his question, Anna giggled a little "No, Lloyd, he's going to be living with us from now on.

"Oh…okay." _What is going on? How'd this happen? And why's Kratos here? I thought…is this a dream?_ Lloyd walked over and sat across from Kratos, the dark eyes of his elder watching him.

From that point on, the young boy's morning went normally up until the time when he had to actually **go**to school. Gathering his books, Lloyd and his mother were quietly trying to recover all the ones he needed from ther many hiding places around the house. The pair were quiet, because they thought Kratos had fallen asleep on the couch and neither of them wanted to wake him up. Unknown to them, Kratos was staying as still as he could while over-seeing their hunt for Lloyd's books.

"Now remember, Lloyd, play nice with all the other children, okay?" His mother asked after the two of them found the last of four books. "Don't worry about a thing. No one's going to be mean to you on your first day there." As she gave him advice, Lloyd was waiting for Kratos to interrupt and add his own, for he now realized this day as his first day of school at which he met Mithos and Suna. "And above all else, treat everyone—"

"As they treat you," the man's icy tone was as obvious as his cold stare. "If someone treats you badly, pay them back ten-fold, but if one shows you kindness, show them double that for you never know who you will ally with in the future."

Anna sighed lightly, turning from Lloyd to Kratos, a smile on her gentle face. "If you'd remember, the war ended years ago, Kratos."

"That doesn't mean discrimination had, Anna," he replied, beginning to sound like he and Anna were about to get into one of their famous disagreements. As a result, Lloyd told them he was going to go to school since he didn't want to be around when they finished; the words "kiss and make up" were never truer than at the end of one of them.

* * *

As he walked, Lloyd looked around for any sign that it was **the**day he met Mithos, because if it was then he might be able to not get as beaten as he had. Coming up to his school, he saw the young blond boy on the ground; trying to stand as five or so older guys beat up the child of around six or so. Dropping the books formerly clutched to his chest, Lloyd ran over to them, shouting, "Stop it!" As he tried to break through, Lloyd found the older boys relatively easier to move than he thought they would be. He turned, stretching his arms out in between Mithos and the older elven boys. "Leave him alone! What did he ever do to any of you guys?" Lloyd demanded angrily.

The whole group of older boys laughed. "You think you can stand up to all of us, little half-dwarf? You've gotta be kidding…" They advanced towards Lloyd, nothing but harming him in their minds at this point, but instead of them winning the fight, it was Lloyd all because he was a half-dwarf. Afterwards, the elven boys retreated as quickly as their legs could carry them.

At that exact moment, as Lloyd was stepping towards the blond boy, the younger males' head looked up at him. "What is going on here, Lloyd?"

"Huh? How do you know my name?" Lloyd wondered, giving the blond a questioning kind of confused look.

Pausing, the younger boy thought for a moment. "Why'd you help me then? Someone like you should be able to see what I am." He gestured to his ears that, instead of being rounded at the top, came to a point.

"You're an elf?" Lloyd asked in surprise, but he was only so for a few seconds.

"Yeah, I guess I should've. What's your name?"

"My name? It's Mithos."

"It's nice to meet you, Mithos. I would tell you mine, but you already know it." The auburn-haired boy's voice sounded like a child's, but he used words like he was still sixteen years old. He laughed a little as he spoke; thinking it odd an elven boy knew his name.

Mithos smiled awkwardly. "Yeah…" He looked towards their school where the group of older boys had run off to after Lloyd had defended Mithos from them. "Are we gonna go to school now?"

Lloyd nodded. "Uh huh. Let's go!" The boy shouted excitedly, pointing to the front door of their school. He started to run towards it when Mithos called out for him to stop. Turning, he saw the younger boy carrying four books in his tiny arms. "Oh, yeah, I forgot about those. Here, I'll take 'em."

Mithos' head shook. "No, I can do it. I need to repay you for helping m—hey! Lloyd!" He shouted in alarm as his elder took three of the four books from him. "I can carry them by myself, Lloyd. Just because I look younger than you doesn't mean I am."

"So you're saying you're eight years old?"

"Lloyd, you're not eight," a female's voice told him from behind. "You're sixteen, so act like it." Although when the two turned around, no one was there. "I enjoy magic, don't you, Mithos?" Once again her voice was behind the pair of boys, and they both turned to try to see who the speaker was. "Be careful, Lloyd, looks can be deceiving. Especially when Mithos is involved."

"Shut up!" The blond shouted. "Who are you and how do you know who I am?"

The voice chuckled, finally sounding like the child she is. "I'm just a single wind spirit, wishing to make things better for you than they were. You know there were some innocent people who were hurt by that you did, Mithos, but did you care? No. You just wanted revenge, didn't you? Revenge on Zelus, on Kazuko, on any and every student who never lifted a finger to help you out, on your stupid family who didn't care about you, on—"

"My family does so care about me!" Mithos yelled, stomping his right foot on the ground. "Martel is the best sister I've ever had and-and just because my parents aren't home most of the time means nothing!"

"I wasn't talking about your-never mind!" The girl gasped, seeing that she had accidentally mentioned her own fear that her family didn't care about her at all. Both boys felt a soft breeze brush against their faces, but then it quickly changed to a harsh wind that almost knocked Mithos off balance since he's so light. "Neither of you get it, do you? Here." After she spoke, the pair got frozen in place as the world around them began to look like everyone except them was on fast-forward. Days went by like minutes until everything stopped in less than a second.

Lloyd looked around, "What the heck?" Where am I? Mithos? Where'd you go?"

"You know what's even **more**pathetic, Zelus?" The familiar voice of the wind spirit floated over to Lloyd as she spoke. "You need all your little elven friends to back you up just so you can beat up some little kid."

"What do **you**want, Suna?" Zelus' voice sounded agitated so say the least.

"Nothing really," Suna responded aloofly. "It's just I can't stand having my silence interrupted by your annoying voice." As Lloyd slowly crept towards the pair of voices, he saw a younger version of the Suna he knew brush back a few stray strands of hair out of her face.

"You're as arrogant as always," Zelus grumbled.

"And you're a dumb blond," Suna retorted evenly, her face appearing to be smirking directly at him, "as always."

At this, Zelus' head turned to look back at his friends as he told them to retreat for the day. "Let's go. I've had enough of this stupid, little human's smart mouth." They all then slowly walked away at first before running as fast as they could away from Suna and Mithos.

As soon as the elves were gone, Suna glanced down at Mithos who was lying motionless on the ground. "You okay, Mithos?"

Mithos looked up at her, then nodded. Noticing someone was coming towards them, Suna spun around to see who it was. "Hey, Suna!" He shouted. Lloyd came up to the two others, giving them both a look of pure confusion. "What just happened?"

"Look, I didn't do anything to him, okay? That was Zelus and his minions," Suna remarked defensively, holding hands up in front of her. She then pointed at Mithos, "Ask him if you don't believe me." Suna folded her arms across her chest as her face tilted downward. "Wouldn't be the first time…" she muttered to herself.

"I wasn't talking about what they did to Mithos," Lloyd responded looking at Suna, then down at Mithos. "You okay?"

"Uh, huh," the blond boy responded, nodding.

Lloyd looked up at Suna, his face curious. "Do you have any idea what just happened? I think about a week just went by in front of my eyes and I have no idea how it happened. I heard your voice before it too. You were talking to us and you said 'here' or something."

Suna's expression changed from sadness to complete confusion. "What are you talking about?" She asked. "And how do you know my name?"

Lloyd thought for a second. "I know this is gonna sound really weird, but I'm not eight years old. I just look like I am. I have been, for some reason, taken back to the days I first met both you and Mithos in the order I did. I don't know the reason, but in the future, you Mithos and I are best friends."

Appearing not to believe him at all, Suna turned her back to him. "You really shouldn't go around saying things like that. It could mess up your entire future if you did." She then leapt up into the nearby tree and disappeared from sight.

* * *

The rest of the day, Lloyd stayed at home and tried to figure out what was happening. He sat in his room on his bed, thinking of any possible way it could have happened. Hours had past since he got home, but neither Anna nor Kratos had come up to see if there was a problem. "What's happening to me…?" Since he was too focused on his own problems, Lloyd didn't notice the door quietly opening slowly.

"You're not my eight-year-old son, are you, Lloyd?" His usually cold tine had been replaced by a kind, curious one. "Do you know where he is?" Kratos asked, softly closing the door behind him and then walking over to sit on the edge of Lloyd's bed.

Lloyd's head shifted to look up at Kratos. "I am him, Kratos. I've just been taken back in time from where I'm from, eight years from now." His face fell. "I don't want to have to go through what I did back then over again, Kratos. I-I don't want to see you die…" Tears formed by his eyes, his young voice shaking. "I don't want you to go, Dad."

Unable to believe his ears, Kratos could barely speak. "What did you just call me?" The man stared at his son in complete shock at being called "Dad.

"You're my dad, Kratos, and I even though I don't know that much about you right now, I want to learn more. I-I don't want to-to have to see you di-die right in front of my eyes again…"

A small smile came to Kratos' lips. "I died before because I was trying to save you, Lloyd. I have no regrets of that day. If anything, I am proud of the way you have taken care of Anna all these years." As he spoke, Kratos' skin and clothes became more and more transparent, and Lloyd grew up at the same time. When he finished, Kratos was but a mere shadow of what he had been before, and Lloyd was once again sixteen. "Don't give up hope, Lloyd, my dear son…" His voice faded away as the rest of his body did as well, leaving teenage Lloyd alone in his room.

"What was that all about?"

* * *

This is almost coming to an end, so there won't be many chapters left at all. In fact, I think there's only going to be one and it's kinda an epilogue-type one. Thanks to anyone who has read & reviewed this fic.


	14. Suna's Epilogue

Some years later…

"Come on, Lloyd! Hurry up!" Mithos called, running quickly to the tree he, Lloyd, and Suna always hung out around. Although, Suna was rarely seen around there ever since their school was destroyed, and not many people knew where she was. The times when they did see her, it was only for a brief glance which made them think it was a trick their minds were playing on them. Of the pair, Lloyd saw Suna's face more often. "I want to start this already! You know Suna'd want you to!"

Glaring at his best friend's back, Lloyd ran as fast as he could to the tree. Even though there were many trees that looked similar to it, the boys could always tell which one was the tree they were looking for because there was a slight indent in the ground near the base of it that looked like a young child's footprints. How did they know these prints were Suna's? Just below the trunk of their tree was a mark in the dirt. This mark was small, just the right size for the tip of her unsheathed dagger to fit snugly into it; just like it had when Zelus had knocked her from her perch on a tree branch years ago.

Mithos, leaning lightly against its trunk, sighed. "Took you long enough to get here. We've been waiting."

From where he was laying on his stomach tiredly, Lloyd looked curiously up at Mithos. "What do you mean by "we"? There's no one else here besides us, and I wasn't waiting for me to—"  
"I meant Suna, sheesh." Over the years, Mithos' long blond hair grew to about the length of his lower back and was currently tied into a ponytail. He had grown in many ways, including height and maturity. "Who else would I mean, Lloyd? She **is** who we came to see, remember?"  
"Yeah, yeah, I know, Mithos." Like Mithos, Lloyd, too, had matured in ways over the years. If the two stood side-by-side, Mithos would actually be taller even though he's two years younger than Lloyd. While Lloyd was almost eighteen and graduating from high school, Mithos was sixteen but also going to be graduating for his intelligence surpassed those of others his age and he was allowed to skip two years of schooling. When he was only four, Mithos had started first grade with kids who were six or seven.

As Lloyd got up to stand beside Mithos, the younger boy took his weight off the trunk. "Do you think we should really be doing this? I mean, we know Suna's alive, right?"  
"We can't be sure of that. They said on the news that Kazuko's body was found floating downstream near the last place we knew Suna was. It's a really weird coincidence, but I just wanna see if Suna's really gone for good this time." Lloyd's voice was solemn, trying not to let his sadness show through. He glanced down at the two pieces of "evidence" they had found that it was Suna's tree, then up at the tree itself. "Suna, if you can hear me, please let us know you're okay…okay?"

They waited for roughly ten minutes before Mithos was about to turn around and go home. In fact, he did turn but saw to his surprise a man of about twenty-eight years old. He had dark, practically black brown hair that flopped all over his head; part of his bangs even covered his left eye more than half-way. The man had a soft, angelic-like glow to him. "Why are you looking for Suna here, Lloyd? Don't you know where she would be if anything would happen and she didn't think she'd ever see you again?"

Lloyd spun around a look of pure surprise on his face. "Kratos? Wha-what are you doing here? I thought you—"  
Kratos raised a hand, silencing his son immediately. "She came to ask a favor of me, Lloyd. Please do not think poorly of her memory for doing this."

"What?" Both boys now stared at Kratos, utterly confused as to what he meant. "You mean…Suna's dead?" Lloyd's voice was barely over a whisper.

Kratos nodded slowly. "Yes, but before you do anything rash, she asked me to tell you both that she's fine where she is and to keep her memory alive. She also wanted me to give you this, Lloyd." He stepped forward, passing Mithos. "Open your right hand, palm facing up, and close your eyes." A little sparkle fell from Kratos' hand to Lloyd's. On closer examination, Mithos saw that it was one of Kazuko's silver feathers wrapped around a small, spherical object. "She told me that, before she died, she was able to transform herself into this; she called it an exsphere."

Hearing the name it was called; Mithos' surprised stare changed to a saddened expression as it went from Kratos to the exsphere. _She learned that from…oh, no. How am I gonna explain this to him now?_

"An exsphere…wait, what do you mean she transformed herself into this thi—ow! What was that for, Kratos?!"

"Do **not** call someone's life force a thing, Lloyd," Kratos chided angrily. "There is not way to know just how hard it was for Suna to do this in the state she was in, and only a few people know how to reverse it. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone still alive who does. Although I've heard that both techniques, creating one and reversing it, were originally thought of by an elf name Yggdrasill. Where he or she is now, or even if that elf is alive, no one knows."

Lloyd looked to Mithos. "Do you know—?"  
"I'm sorry, Lloyd. I don't remember it at all. It's been years since I created that, and I have no memory of how to reverse it once an exsphere is made. I'm so very, very sorry. I'm the cause of this happening…again," Mithos confessed, his tone of voice going from extremely apologetic to bitter as he spoke. "I'm sorry, Lloyd…"

At the first few words, Lloyd began walking stiffly away, not listening to what Mithos had to say after "I'm sorry." Unknown to him, he was silently being followed by his father. Kratos remained this way until the two of them were almost home.

"Lloyd, listen, to him, alright? I'm sure he didn't know she was going to do that to her—"

Lloyd angrily spun around to face his father. "Well you know what? I don't care anymore! It doesn't matter to me if Suna's alive! No, I'll stay the way I am for the rest of my life, wondering what it would've been like to have a girlfriend like her! I'll keep wondering because I'll never know all because Mithos had told Suna how to create this!" He held up the fist in which he clutched Suna's life, tears sliding down his cheeks as he yelled at his dad. "Never again will I trust **anyone **who doesn't have the same blood as me, and even then I might not because they could just be lying about it like she was, saying how she's a human when all along Suna was a fel-elf!"

"Why?" A voice wondered. "Why will you never trust anyone anymore, Lloyd? I didn't want you to think that. I wanted you to be happy. Didn't you notice your father's alive again? You and Anna can have him back. This is the price I paid so you could have a good, whole, kind family again. Please don't become paranoid, Lloyd. I care about you too much to let that happen to you, okay?"

"Huh?" Lloyd looked around for the source of the voice, but saw no one there except Kratos. "Is that you, Suna?"  
"Yes, it is. If you want to see me, look down at your hand." When the boy did as he was asked, he saw an image of Suna's face reflect off the surface of the exsphere in his hand. "See me now?" Lloyd nodded, the shock keeping him from speaking. Suna smiled, "That's good. I wanted to talk to you on my own, but if I tried this near that tree it wouldn't have been a good idea. The thing I was told about exspheres was that you won't be able to communicate with anyone near your favorite hang out spot. Get it? All you need to do if you want to talk is ask to away from that tree."

"But that's where we met you, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, Lloyd, but that's why it's my favorite place. Not because it's near school or anything like that. It's because it's where I made my first friend, and where I met you; the first person to ever accept me for who I was no matter what."

"If you like it here so much, why'd you die?"

"I explained it before. I was too wrapped up in getting revenge on others to let me be myself, and it finally caught up with me. Though you needn't worry, Lloyd, everything's fine. Promise me you won't assume anyone is evil like you said you were going to, okay?"

Lloyd nodded. "Okay."

*

From that day on, Lloyd wore Suna's exsphere on the back of his right hand as a reminder to him of his promise to her. Keeping to his promise, Lloyd always gave anyone he met a fair chance and didn't discriminate against any race, even if one of their own had mistreated him in the past.

As part of an agreement between Lloyd, his father, and Mithos, neither of them would reveal that the origin of Lloyd's exsphere was Suna's life. That was, until either Mithos or Kratos discovered the way to reverse what she had done and heal any injury she might have had when she was transformed so that Suna could once again walk amongst the living.

Though until then, she's perfectly fine living inside the exsphere for in there she gets to spend time with Lloyd every second of the day for the rest of his life.

* * *

**THE END!**


End file.
